Born Brussels, died Edinburgh. Painter of portraits and occasional history subjects. Came to London in 1686 where he quickly established a flourishing practice as a portrait painter, before moving north and becoming the leading portraitist in Scotland between 1689 and 1710. Having met and painted the Earl of Leven his introductions were such that he is said to have painted half the nobility in Scotland. During his time in Scotland his style change from the ‘full, sonorous Baroque portraits of the 1690s to the lighter free less formal portraits of the following decade’, and some of his best work, likened not unfavourably to Hogarth, were his informal portraits of his own children.